Participating Databases

Type of information that can be found via eChemPortal:

Hazard assessments.

General information:

INCHEM provides a single consolidated collection of chemical-safety information from intergovernmental organizations; and rapid electronic access to information on chemicals used throughout the world and which may occur as contaminants in the environment and food. The collection consists of over 8000 documents in full-text format which are available free-of-charge.

Hazard information:

The collection includes the established series of the reports of the WHO/FAO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR), the WHO/FAO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), IPCS Environmental Health Criteria (EHC), IPCS Concise International Chemical Assessment Documents (CICADs), International Agency of Research on Cancer (IARC) Summaries and Evaluations, IPCS International Safety Cards (ICSC) and IPCS Poisons Information Monographs.

Search capabilities:

INCHEM allows simultaneous free-text searching across all available documents e.g. searching words in titles of documents and/or signs and symptoms of exposure. It also allows searching by chemical name, synonyms and CAS Registry Number. Synonyms used in different languages are searchable.

Maintenance:

INCHEM is maintained collaboratively by the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) at the World Health Organization and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). INCHEM was developed in the context of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) with the participation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the International Labour Organization (ILO); the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the United Nations Institute for Training and Development (UNITAR) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Peer review:

International peer review is an essential part of the process of preparing the series of intergovernmental reports included in INCHEM. This peer review includes review by government agencies and the expert committees such as those of the WHO and FAO.